A few days later I went to address a meeting
of the Workers' Educational Association at Swindon. That was indeed worth while. There can be no doubt at all that the W.E.A. is fulfilling a great public service. To many thousands of people it suggests the idea that thoughtless party prejudices lead to extreme political ineptitude : that beyond the catch-words and passions of class warfare there does exist some higher and more central national interest. I travelled back that night from Swindon, through those unseen but remembered downlands, happy in the thought that, as in the portico of St. Paul's Church, I had been reminded again of the continuity of the British tradition. During all these weeks of perplexed apprehension, in all this welter of inarticulate and dispersed patriotism and all too articulate and organised class selfishness, one central anxiety has gnawed at the hearts of thoughtful people. " Why is it that the faith and fortitude of our nation faila somehow to find expression, whereas all our futile little fumblings loom so large ? How comes it that the vast and solid background of England is hidden behind this tinsel, foreground of selfishness, disunity and doubt ? "
Previous page
